Let us be honest about where our real problems lie

By Ken Opalo

When it comes to the country’s finances, the Government appears to be schizophrenic. On the one hand, it complains about the ballooning wage bill and an ever-growing public debt. But on the other hand it operates like it has unlimited sources of cash, with big-ticket expenditures planned to be rolled out without much thought or discussion of the financial and social implications.

To a keen observer, it appears that tendering and the spoils arising from it are the drivers of policy rather than serious research, design and evaluation. For a long time, Kenyans were subjected to the culture of jua kali policy pronouncements by the roadside. That is supposed to have changed. However, in reality what changed is the manner of announcement. The actual process of policy development appears to be stuck in the bad old days. 

Two examples quickly come to mind. The first one is the much-hyped free laptop for Standard One pupils programme. The promise was a good campaign slogan that captured the people’s imagination. But as a matter of public policy, is it sound? Are free laptops for Standard One pupils the best and cheapest way to promote computer literacy in the country? Who will maintain them? What if parents sell the laptops? The second one is the free maternity services directive by President Kenyatta on Madaraka Day. Again here, was there any thought into how it would impact maternity services, and public health in general?

The fact of the matter is that Kenya is not yet a wealthy country. As such, we must learn to live within our means and to appropriately prioritize the way we deploy public resources. A key consideration in the process of policy development should always be whether the course chosen gives the biggest bang for the buck now and into the future.

The idea of free solar-powered laptops sounds like something straight from an NGO run by a wide-eyed Western do-gooder undergraduate, and not a government that is keenly aware of the pressing needs of its population. I am getting increasingly worried that the Government has fallen for the fallacy of technology — that new tech will be the panacea to all our problems.

As a country, we should be honest about where the real problems lie as far as public education and health systems are concerned. Simply throwing technology or money at problems will not magically solve them. For instance, perhaps it might have been better to invest in computer laboratories in public schools. Yes, that would have required extensive rural electrification (which we should have done already) and may have locked out certain parts of the country to begin with. But this approach seems reasonable to me.

Kenya wants to be a serious and competitive ICT hub beginning tomorrow. Yet for a while the only pupils that will have access to computers in our schools will be six year olds.

The maternity directive was certainly well intentioned. Stories of mothers being detained by hospitals after birth are too hard to stomach. That said, it seems like the policy came from the heart and not the mind. The Free Primary Education programme is a caution on the potential impact on quality when we make public services free. Is a further decline of quality something that we can afford in the healthcare system? Will potential lowering of quality lead to higher infant and maternal mortality rates across the country? We definitely need to increase per capita expenditure on health – in 2011 the World Bank ranked Kenya in the bottom 18 worldwide on this score. But it should be done smartly, with the systemic implications of each action in mind. Policy makers who ignore the law of unintended consequences do so at the country’s peril.

There is no problem with politics motivating public policy. This, indeed, is the essence of democracy. But good leaders are those that steer the public towards policies that are not only popular but also make economic and logical sense. Blind populism will not lead us to economic and social transformation. Because it is politically hard to roll back populist policies, their introduction must always be preceded by robust study and debate. The failure to do so puts the country at risk of fiscal ruin in the future. President Kenyatta and his administration claim to be digital. It is high time this claim showed in their policy development process.